Prime Time: Bride Hard (2025)

If you want an action comedy with a talented female comedian in the main role then I could direct you towards one or two options. If you want an action comedy set against the backdrop of a wedding then I know of at least one that I would tentatively recommend. Bride Hard gives you a bit of both, although it depends on how talented and funny you find star Rebel Wilson. I would say that this is one of her best vehicles in the last decade, but that's damning it with faint praise.

Wilson plays Sam, a woman trying to enjoy her role as Maid Of Honour for her bestie, Betsy (Anna Camp). Unfortunately, Sam is often called away to her job, which is exciting and dangerous. Unbeknownst to most of the people around her, Sam is a spy. This makes her a bit unreliable when it comes to schedules and parties, leading to her being replaced in the Maid Of Honour role by Virginia (Anna Chlumsky), but she's very handy to have around when the big wedding day is gate-crashed by a group of mercenary robbers. 

The first feature to be produced from a screenplay by Shaina Steinberg, this feels like something that was very loosely plotted to allow plenty of space and time for Wilson to riff in her particular style. That could have gone badly, but the fact that the supporting cast allows for everyone else to have a bit of fun (Camp, Chlumsky, and both Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Gigi Zumbado are especially good as the other members of the bridal party). It's also good to have Stephen Dorff as the main villain, Justin Hartley being a bit of eye candy for the ladies in the first act, and a good selection of fairly familiar faces in some smaller roles.

Simon West knows what he's doing in the director's chair. While the gags aren't always as funny as they could be, nor the action as satisfying and slick as more straightforward, and more violent, outings, the ration feels just about right. This is passable entertainment for those browsing their streaming options and looking for something easygoing and fun, even if one or two moments seem determined to bring you out of the movie with the implausibility of it all.

I would definitely revisit the movies alluded to in the first paragraph ahead of this one, but I didn't mind it while it was on. The pacing is decent, a few of the running gags had me chuckling often enough, and there's some obvious messaging about the bonds of friendship being strained as life keeps throwing life stuff in the way. And it might just put you in the mood to rewatch Bridesmaids, which is always a good thing. 

6/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Noel Diary (2022)

Based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, not one I can say I am familiar with, The Noel Diary is, in many ways, a Christmas film with a bit more depth to it than most. That doesn't mean it's unpredictable, and it's far from perfect, but I was drawn into this from the opening scenes, and ended up rooting for the characters to overcome the various obstacles to happiness put in their way. That's the aim of so many of these movies, of course, but not all of them do enough to make you really care about the protagonists. This one did.

Justin Hartley plays Jake Turner, a successful author who has spent the majority of his adult life alone and happy. When he has to head back to his childhood home after the death of his mother, clearing out the items she had hoarded over the years forces him to remember the past events that made him the way he is today. It also leads to him encountering a young woman, Rachel (Barrett Doss), who is searching for her birth mother, a woman she believes once worked for Jake's family many years ago. As the two work together to piece together the journey of Rachel's mother, Jake ends up addressing and re-evaluating his own past, and our leads inevitably grow closer as they are forced to put themselves in a position of vulnerability.

Directed by Charles Shyer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Rebecca Connor (her only screenplay credit, to date) and David Golden (responsible for many of these films, but this may be his best), this has a sheen of care and polish to it that many of these films can lack. Although there's an ambiguity in the opening act that makes the whole thing feel slightly odd (maybe it's just me, I wondered if Jake and Rachel would find out some big secret that would connect them in a way to rule out any chance of romance between them), everything soon settles into an easygoing and enjoyable vibe while our main characters realise truths that viewers will have suspected from very early on.

Hartley is a very good lead, believable and charming. He's genuinely good at showing someone struggling to learn how to let down the walls that he has built up over many years, and this performance is a reminder of how much screen presence, and talent, he has. Doss is equally good, delivering the kind of performance that has me hoping there will be many more lead film roles for her in the near future. Although the core cast is kept relatively small, both Bonnie Bedelia and James Remar excel in main supporting roles, both portraying people who have impacted Jake's life in different ways.

All of the tropes you expect are here (lots of snow, disrupted journeys, a potential failure or two on the way to success), but things feel fresh thanks to the moments that feel pleasantly atypical. There aren't any major misunderstandings between our leads, with clear and open communication helping them avoid the kind of confusion you usually get in this kind of thing, and the resolution feels satisfying without being as "paint by numbers"as it could have been, which makes this feel like a bit of a rarity: a Christmas movie with characters who don't keep jumping to the worst possible conclusion when one thing goes slightly wrong.

7/10

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Netflix And Chill: Senior Year (2022)

I have been someone who, for a few years now, has gone against the majority opinion when it comes to Rebel Wilson. I actually think that she's good at what she does. Well, I used to think that. I am now, belatedly, coming to agree with the people who dislike her film appearances. Just a quick glance over her recent movie roles is enough to show that the bad far outweighs the good. And Senior Year is one of the bad ones.

In a standard ridiculous movie concept, Stephanie is a young woman who managed to turn herself from uncool nerd to super-popular cheerleader captain, with the boyfriend she always wanted and her life unfolding exactly the way she wanted it. That all changes when a cheerleading move leads to her being comatose for twenty years. When she finally wakes up, Stephanie (now played by Rebel Wilson) struggles to adjust. It was just moments ago that she was about to become Prom Queen. She still wants that. She wants her moment. But a lot of things have changed. Her friend, Martha (Mary Holland), is now the school principal. Another friend, Seth (Sam Richardson), works at the school. Both would like to help Stephanie adjust, but both find themselves disappointed and unsurprised when she starts to fall back into very bad habits, spurred on by social media and a desperate need to right the ship that sailed away without her twenty years ago.

Written by Andrew Knauer, Arthur Pielli, and Brandon Scott Jones, the biggest problem with Senior Year is the fact that the central character is too thoroughly unpleasant. That's sometimes all well and good, especially when you expect a predictable bit of redemption and some lessons learned in the third act, but this is a film that doesn't really rectify anything that way. It tries to make it look that way, but it doesn't. So you have someone who has, for the most part, acted like an asshat to many people around her, and she avoids any punishment that feels proportionate to her actions.

Director Alex Hardcastle has a pretty easy job, keeping Wilson as the focus while things move from one scene utilising a pop hit and some nostalgia to the next scene . . . often utilising a pop hit and some nostalgia. The fact that it all ends with the kind of sing-and-dancealong moment usually shoehorned in at the end of an animated family flick maybe indicates how much he underestimates anyone choosing to view this. The problems may have come from the script, but Hardcastle just seeming to go along with everything really compounds them.

Wilson is Wilson. This isn't a good role for her, but she has moments where she gets to deliver her usual schtick, which can lead to an occasional chuckle. Thankfully, the supporting cast are much better, with Holland once again stealing the show (she was also great in Happiest Season) and Richardson very sweet and funny as the friend who has long held a candle for Stephanie. Zoë Chao is the high school nemesis who has grown up and starts off by pretending that the past is left in the past (spoiler - it's not), Justin Hartley is very funny as Blaine, her husband who was once dating Stephanie, and Chris Parnell plays a typically wonderful movie dad. Other good turns come from Avantika and Joshua Colley, students who befriend Stephanie when she rejoins high school, and Jade Bender, playing the daughter of the old high school nemesis who is manipulated by her mother into competing with someone she doesn't want to compete with.

I really disliked the first third of this, the middle section was a bit better, and I can't say that I completely hated the third act while everything was playing out. Thinking about it more though, as the terrible musical sequence was playing out, I started to resent giving it my time. I feel bad for contributing to whatever viewing figures are collected for these streaming releases, and I hope others don't make my mistake. Although it's not irredeemably awful, this is bad. I hope those who still managed to make the most of their roles are rewarded by some better movie options in their near future. And I hope that the director and writers seriously consider their approach to the medium before their next project.

4/10

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